The Cultural Center at the Prince Taz Palace held a symposium on Sunday night to assess the Parliament's performance. This symposium was the scene of a heated argument between some MPs of the National Democratic Party (NDP), opposition MPs and representatives of political parties over women's quota and the Government's subsidy to the parties. Nagui el-Shehabi, President of El-Guil Party and member of the Shoura Council, left the symposium before it ended because of what he called NDP misconceptions. Abdel Ahad Gamal Eddin, majority leader at the People's Assembly, pulled out too but he later agreed to return. Yet, he left again once he delivered his speech, saying this kind of dialogue did not allow responding to what the others said. For his part, Tagammu Party leading figure Hussein Abdel Razek had a row with Gamal Eddin over the dispute to dissolve the Assembly and to let the opposition take part in political life. Dr. Farkhanda Hassan, Secretary General of the National Council for Women, had a row with el-Shehabi over women's role in political parties. Razek said that all the seats for women in the People's Assembly would go to the NDP because the current electoral system serves its interests. He said he did not believe that approving the allocation of seats to women meant the Assembly should have been dissolved five years ago because it did not carry out its legislative and monitoring role. Mr. Gamal Eddin, for his part, described this as a way to discredit the Assembly itself. Major General Amin Radi, deputy chairman of the Defense and National Security Committee at the People's Assembly, called on the opposition to reform and strengthen its ranks so that it could win more seats in the Assembly and allow Egypt to improve. Mr. Gamal Eddin attacked the opposition parties and accused their leading figures of forming parties through their own friends before eventually splitting from each other. He also explained that the very State that the opposition parties lash out is the one which provides them with funds.
